Thursday, July 31, 2008

1987 Fuji Del Rey - Star Silver Special Edition

Found this interesting item trolling around ebay and thought I'd enshrine it here for future reference. Lots of spec info and nice detail pictures on what is called a 1987 Del Rey Star Silver Special Edition. The unusual bar tape is a particularly nice touch.

I'm the original owner of a 1986 version of this bike, with about 1928 miles on it (as of this writing). I paid about $500 for it at the time. That included the bike, custom fitting and a bunch of accessories. It's almost identical to the '87, except mine has a light gray artifical ("Feather") suede saddle. Also, mine doesn't have the original blackout stem. The guy who fitted the bike for me substituted a custom-fitted silver-colored same-model (Nitto) stem for it. I often wish I had asked him to give/sell me the stock stem, since it's rather unusual to the period. My bike isn't quite as nice as the one pictured here, but it's pretty close -- virtually no signs of rust. I have never ridden it in the rain and it was never stowed outdoors. I'm getting back to riding it more, and find that it still rides great. I recently replaced the pedals with flat symmetrical ones ... I never was comfortable using toe clips out on the road, and the wear on them shows more than any other component. But of course I saved the original equipment. Also, I re-wrapped the handlebars with some Fizik silver Microtex tape -- not an exact match for the original, which was removed many years ago, but a reasonable facsimile. What do you suppose this ride is worth? Here's a scan of the Fuji catalog page: http://www.classicfuji.com/DelRey_1986_Page.htm